Empresa Ferroviaria Andina S.A.

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What it is

Ferroviaria Andina is the operator of Bolivia’s western rail network — more than 1,800 km of track crossing the Andean highlands and connecting to Chile, Argentina and Peru. It carries freight and passengers, and also repairs and maintains railway equipment and infrastructure.

The Andean network handles roughly 80% of Potosí’s mineral exports — a department that accounts for 54% of Bolivia’s mining export value. The company operates eleven cargo stations, from Viacha and Oruro in the north to Villazón on the Argentine border.

Who owns it

The ownership chain begins in Bolivia and ends in Delaware, USA: Bolivian Railways Investors Company Inc., incorporated there on 17 July 1995, controls — through three intermediate holding companies — exactly 50.004% of the shares; the beneficial owners behind that Delaware entity are not identified in Bolivian public records.

The remaining 49.928% belongs to all Bolivians, held under the management of the Gestora Pública de Seguridad Social — the state pension administrator — with a residual 0.068% in other hands. That pension-fund stake was formed from shares distributed to all Bolivians during the privatisation of state companies in the 1990s.

The private controlling shareholder’s true identity remains undisclosed in available sources; after the 1996 capitalisation the Luksic Group of Chile originally acquired control with an investment of US$13.2 million.

Who runs it

Carlos Enrique Gill Ramírez, a Venezuelan-born dentist by training, has been president of the board since 2015. Álvaro Javier Valdivia Urioste, a civil-industrial engineer, became general manager (the top executive) in 2024.

Carlos Agramont Salinas has served as administrative-financial manager — the CFO equivalent — since 2000, bringing prior experience at Bolivia’s central bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The money, in plain words

Ferroviaria Andina’s earnings have been volatile: it booked losses of Bs 10.7 million, Bs 9.2 million, Bs 11.1 million and Bs 19.2 million in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2020 respectively. Since then it has clawed back into the black, but only just: the 2023 full-year profit was Bs 4.9 million (~US$497,000), which the annual shareholders’ meeting approved distributing in full.

For 2024, the net profit shrank to Bs 741,622 (~US$75,300) — a year-on-year drop of 85% (our calculation). Since 1996, the company has maintained a standing policy of paying out 95–100% of net profit as dividends each year.

In July 2025 it paid Bs 4.6 million (~US$467,000) to shareholders for the 2024 period — meaning 2023’s profits funded that payout, a one-year lag that is standard practice here.

The biggest financial overhang is a Bs 39.6 million (~US$4.0 million) receivable from the Bolivian state for passenger-service subsidies the government has not paid; the company has already written off 58% of that sum as probably uncollectable. That outstanding Bs 39.6 million equals 8.76 times the company’s entire cumulative net profit from 2021 through 2024 combined.

To cover its operating needs, the company borrows from banks — more than US$25 million in new loans between 2006 and 2024 — pledging its own trains and machinery as collateral. Revenue figures are not disclosed in available public sources.

What it is doing now

Management is repositioning the company as a strategic logistics partner for Bolivian exporters; board president Carlos Gill Ramírez argues it now offers “more competitive and secure transport” connecting Bolivia to regional and global markets. In the first quarter of 2026, net sales revenue rose 15.5% year-on-year — the most recent signal that freight volumes are recovering.

The company is also seeking contracts with state enterprises including food-supply agency EMAPA, cement producer ECEBOL, and lithium operator YLB — a bet that Bolivia’s resource-extraction economy will generate new rail freight that the road network cannot efficiently serve.

What to watch

• The state debt: Bolivia owes Bs 39.6 million in contractual subsidies dating back to 2012; the company has provisioned 58% as potentially uncollectable, and court proceedings are ongoing. Resolution, in either direction, would move the profit line sharply.
• Dividend policy vs. investment: The company has made minimal investment in the Andean line and none in the cross-country connection to eastern Bolivia that would substantially increase freight capacity. Distributing almost all profits every year leaves little capital for that work.
• Ownership transparency: The ultimate beneficial owners of Bolivian Railways Investors Company Inc., the Delaware entity that controls 50.004% of the company, remain unidentified in Bolivian public records.
• Earnings fragility: The 2024 net profit of Bs 741,622 (~US$75,300) is extremely thin — a single bad freight quarter or a cost spike can push this company back into loss territory, as history repeatedly shows.

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This is news, not investment advice.